A local high school teacher has joined a rather exclusive group in rocketry instruction.

Shawn Warden of Gilmer, who teaches at New Diana High School, has completed Level 3 High Altitude Goddard-Level Training at NASA in Houston.

This qualifies her as an instructor for the construction of rockets designed to reach altitudes of 100,000 feet (about 19 miles).

This is not Ms. Warden’s first experience in rocketry. This last May, her class successfully launched supersonic and 2-mile-high rockets at a site in Fredericksburg.

This high-altitude certification, combined with Ms. Warden’s prior training and state certification in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics accredits her as one of only 10 high school teachers nationwide eligible to accompany students to the U.S. Army-supervised site in White Sands, N.M., from which all rockets of this class must be launched.

(Because of the high altitude the rockets are designed to achieve, air space must be cleared above the site.)

The Goddard Level-training is part of the Systems Go Aerospace Program designed to develop tomorrow’s innovators. The training received in these rocket classes can be invaluable to students planning to enter many fields of engineering and science.

East Texas, perhaps the nation, may likely heard from these students in the future.